Linux – My DNS server is pushing 20mbps, why

amazon ec2binddomain-name-systemlinux

I am running a DNS server in EC2, and it was pushing about 20mbps yesterday when I checked my billing dashboard and found 1.86 TB of used data this month. That's a big bill for my small project lab. I never noticed performance drops and didn't bother to setup traffic threshholds before, but I have now since this has cost me $200+ in bandwidth charges.

It seems someone used my DNS server as part of an amplification attack, however I am at a loss for how.

Config is below. 

// BBB.BBB.BBB.BBB = ns2.mydomain.com ip address

options {
        listen-on port 53 { any; };
//      listen-on-v6 port 53 { ::1; };
        directory "/var/named";
        dump-file "/var/named/data/cache_dump.db";
        statistics-file "/var/named/data/named_stats.txt";
        memstatistics-file "/var/named/data/named_mem_stats.txt";
        allow-transfer { BBB.BBB.BBB.BBB; };
        allow-query-cache { BBB.BBB.BBB.BBB; };
        allow-query { any; };
        allow-recursion { none; };

        empty-zones-enable no;
        forwarders { 8.8.8.8; 8.8.4.4; };

        fetch-glue no;
        recursion no;

        dnssec-enable yes;
        dnssec-validation yes;

        /* Path to ISC DLV key */
        bindkeys-file "/etc/named.iscdlv.key";

        managed-keys-directory "/var/named/dynamic";
};

logging {
        channel default_debug {
                file "data/named.run";
                severity dynamic;
        };
};

zone "." IN {
        type hint;
        file "named.ca";
};

zone "mydomain.com" IN {
        type master;
        file "zones/mydomain.com";
        allow-transfer { BBB.BBB.BBB.BBB; localhost; };
};

Given this configuration, I should NOT be answering any queries for zone's I don't host locally right? This server is the SOA for a few domain's, but is not used to look anything up by my other servers (everyone resolves against OpenDNS or Google). What directive do I have wrong here, or am I forgetting? My logs (63MB+) are full of this:

client 58.215.173.155#4444: query (cache) 'cpsc.gov/ANY/IN' denied
client 58.215.173.155#4444: query (cache) 'cpsc.gov/ANY/IN' denied
client 58.215.173.155#4444: query (cache) 'cpsc.gov/ANY/IN' denied
client 58.215.173.155#4444: query (cache) 'cpsc.gov/ANY/IN' denied
client 58.215.173.155#4444: query (cache) 'cpsc.gov/ANY/IN' denied
client 58.215.173.155#4444: query (cache) 'cpsc.gov/ANY/IN' denied
client 218.93.206.228#4444: query (cache) 'cpsc.gov/ANY/IN' denied
client 218.93.206.228#4444: query (cache) 'cpsc.gov/ANY/IN' denied
client 218.93.206.228#4444: query (cache) 'cpsc.gov/ANY/IN' denied
client 218.93.206.228#4444: query (cache) 'cpsc.gov/ANY/IN' denied
client 218.93.206.228#4444: query (cache) 'cpsc.gov/ANY/IN' denied
client 218.93.206.228#4444: query (cache) 'cpsc.gov/ANY/IN' denied
client 50.19.220.154#4444: query (cache) 'cpsc.gov/ANY/IN' denied
client 50.19.220.154#4444: query (cache) 'cpsc.gov/ANY/IN' denied
client 50.19.220.154#4444: query (cache) 'cpsc.gov/ANY/IN' denied
client 50.19.220.154#4444: query (cache) 'cpsc.gov/ANY/IN' denied
client 50.19.220.154#4444: query (cache) 'cpsc.gov/ANY/IN' denied
client 50.19.220.154#4444: query (cache) 'cpsc.gov/ANY/IN' denied
client 123.207.161.124#4444: query (cache) 'cpsc.gov/ANY/IN' denied
client 123.207.161.124#4444: query (cache) 'cpsc.gov/ANY/IN' denied
client 123.207.161.124#4444: query (cache) 'cpsc.gov/ANY/IN' denied
client 123.207.161.124#4444: query (cache) 'cpsc.gov/ANY/IN' denied
client 123.207.161.124#4444: query (cache) 'cpsc.gov/ANY/IN' denied

Best Answer

Even if your server is set to only answer authoritative queries as yours is, it's still possible for it to be used for an amplification attack - ANY queries against the root of a zone can trigger a fairly heavy UDP response, since the zone root tends to have a number of records, particularly with SPF/DKIM/DNSSEC.

This is likely what's happening on your system - use tcpdump to confirm. If they are using your authoritative records in an amplification attack, your best options are going to be to simply move to a new IP and hope they don't follow, change your zone root records to make it a less effective amplification vector, or implement response rate limiting (if your BIND supports it).

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